Anti-malarial activity of ethanolic leaf extract of Piliostigma thonningii Schum. (Caesalpiniacea) in mice infected with Plasmodium berghei berghei

摘要

Piliostigma thonningii?Schum. (Caesalpiniacea) is used traditionally in the management of fever, cough, wounds and various ulceration. Oral acute toxicity of the ethanolic leaf extract of?Piliostigma thorningii?was evaluated in mice using modified Lorke’s method. The ethanolic leaf extract was evaluated for?in vivo?anti plasmodial activity against chloroquine sensitive strain of?Plasmodium berghei berghei NK65?in mice. Four day suppressive, curative effect against established infection and prophylactic models of anti plasmodial studies were carried out. The oral median lethal dose was determined to be 3807.89 mg/kg body weight. The extract (100,200 and 400 mg/kg) exerted dose dependent chemo suppressive effects at the different levels of the infections tested. However the anti-plasmodial effect of chloroquine at 5 mg/kg body weight was higher than the extract in all the test models. This shows that the plant has anti plasmodial property that can be explored for the management of malaria.